Wait!
The FCC did NOT force ABC to cancel Jimmy Kimmel.
It just looks like a shakedown. It wasn't.
Oops.
FCC chairman Brendan Carr is backtracking. ABC caved too quickly to Carr's threats.
Trump announced the plan:
[Networks] give me wholly bad publicity, press. They're getting a license. I would think maybe their license should be taken away.
Carr used mob-boss language in a threat to the networks:
“This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. . . .These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
It was a credible threat. Trump can be cruel and decisive, cutting health grants to research hospitals, food to starving children, firing employees who aren't personally loyal.
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| Mafia warning |
I think Brendan Carr is a great American patriot. So I disagree with Ted Cruz on that.
It is hard to change a story once it is embedded in the public mind, partly because Trump is still sounding triumphant and is calling for more cancellations. Trump's allies in the Rupert Murdoch media aren't helping change the story. The Wall Street Journal is minimizing the Trump/Carr move, calling it turnabout for Democrats. Minimization is the wrong approach. Minimization just confirms that the government did, in fact, threaten ABC.
First impressions matter. Trump has a brand. Mr. Tough guy. Menacing. Cruel. Get things done, quick and dirty. The Trump-bullied-ABC story fits that brand. Saying that ABC responded primarily to pressure from affiliates may well be factually true, but it contradicts 10 years of Trump branding and the vivid language Trump and Carr used.
This event is another brick in the foundation of Trump cultural power. Businesses, governments, and universities are tiptoeing, feeling the chill. They are running their language and actions through a filter to see if they might draw the ire of Trump or MAGA crowds. They want to avoid "the hard way." They are making adjustments. People are reviewing their social media posts. Some things get you fired. It used to be that it was forbidden to praise Hitler or say you were OK with Russia invading Europe. Now it is dangerous to criticize Charlie Kirk or Trump.
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| RV Times link. |
Every action brings a reaction. This may backfire on Trump. He has added a feature to his brand: Trump the thin-skinned censor. The easiest target of humor is the powerful person who demands flattery. We love the little girl who says the emperor has no clothes. We tolerate leaders because we can laugh at their foibles.
Thin-skinned censorship is a point of vulnerability for Trump. Democratic leaders tolerate jokes. Not autocrats. Autocrats want people to fear them. If he continues demanding flattery and punishing critics, Trump will give Democrats an opening.
[Note: To get daily delivery of this blog to your email go to: https://petersage.substack.com. Subscribe. Don't pay. The blog is free and always will be.]
8 comments:
Free speech is a critical component of democracy, sure hope we can keep it.
All well and true. HOWEVER, THE REAL REASON FOR ALL THE MEDIA ATTACKS IS BECAUSE KIMMEL, AND OTHERS, ARE TALKING ABOUT EPSTEIN. MORE SURVIVORS ARE SPEAKING OUT AND EXPOSING THE LIES AND COVER UP. IT MUST BE SO TERRIBLE THAT THEY ARE TRYING TO DESTROY FREE SPEECH TO KEEP IT HIDDEN.
Nothing Trump does will shake the faith of Republicans. He is ‘disappearing’ people, using the military against U.S. cities, enriching himself through graft and corruption, using lawsuits and federal agencies to stifle dissent, etc., yet his job approval rating among Republicans is overwhelmingly positive. They’re too stupid to care that we’ve become a dictatorship.
From the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum:
The Nazis wanted Germans to support the Nazi dictatorship and believe in Nazi ideas. To accomplish this goal, they tried to control forms of communication through censorship and propaganda. This included control of newspapers, magazines, books, art, theater, music, movies, and radio.
My Far Right “free speech” absolutist friends and family are having a moment. We’ll see if they will compromise their convictions or rationalize that the ‘perfect is the enemy of the good’ and continue to support him because they always have. Or maybe they fear retribution from their tribe.
Bill Maher recalled his abrupt firing from ABC 24 years ago and said he was cancelled before it was a culture.
Roseanne Barr has said she was fired because Barack and Michelle Obama both called Bob Iger and demanded she be gone.
I saw a headline: Trump's actions in firing Kimmel might be illegal, but it might not matter. The differences in how Kimmel was shown the door via how it happened to Tucker Carlson or Roseanne Barr might not be enough to stick in the public's mind as somehow relevant.
A university prof I read on Twitter, Wesley Yang, finished a recent post with: "Then Trump won and no matter what he does that drives down his polling, the Democrats become even less popular."
Ayla's post reminds me of a Monty Python clip where the brave and bold White knight (Dems?) defending virtue, attacks the Dark Knight, swinging his sword, only to lose an arm. The battle continued until the white knight has lost his limbs to the Dark Knight. I will grant that force and counter force were proportional, but in the recent bout of verbal jousting with Trump, the response from Trump is total focus on all weapons, legal or illegal, available on the adversary: a baseball bat to kill a fly. That is why Trump is dangerous; there are no rules followed in his attacks.
It’s only a flesh wound.”
Anon you got it backwards. The Black Knight loses his limbs and is denial the whole time https://youtu.be/kRwCPUEND1U
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